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6
389-438

  • Go and ask that caravan at the custom-house from what city they are arriving.”
  • He went and asked and returned, saying, “From Rayy.” “Whither bound?” asked the King. He (the Amír) was unable (to reply). 390
  • (Then) he said to another (Amír), “Go, noble lord, and ask whither the caravan is bound.”
  • He went and returned and said, “For Yemen.” “Ha,” said the King, “what is their merchandise, O trusty one?”
  • He (the Amír) remained (silent) in perplexity. (Then) the King said to another Amír, “Go and inquire (what is) the merchandise of those people.”
  • He came back and said, “It is of every sort; the greater part consists of cups made in Rayy.”
  • He (the King) asked, “When did they set out from the city of Rayy?” The dull-witted Amír remained (silent) in perplexity. 395
  • So (it went on) till thirty Amírs and more (had been tested): (all were) feeble in judgement and deficient in (mental) power.
  • (Then) he said to the Amírs, “One day I put my Ayáz to the test separately,
  • Saying, ‘Inquire of the caravan (and find out) whence it comes.’ He went and asked all these questions (just) right.
  • Without instructions, without a hint (from me), he apprehended everything concerning them, point by point, without any uncertainty or doubt.”
  • Everything that was discovered by these thirty Amírs in thirty stages was completed by him (Ayáz) in one moment. 400
  • How the Amírs endeavoured to rebut that argument by the Necessitarian error and how the King answered them.
  • Then the Amírs said, “This is a branch (species) of His (God's) providential favours: it has nothing to do with (personal) effort.
  • The fair face of the moon is bestowed on it by God, the sweet scent of the rose is the gift of Fortune.”
  • “Nay,” said the Sultan, “that which proceeds from one's self is the product of (one's own) remissness and the income derived from (one's own) labour.
  • Otherwise, how should Adam have said unto God, ‘O our Lord, verily we have wronged ourselves’?
  • Surely he would have said, ‘This sin was from Fate: since it was destiny, what does our precaution avail?’ 405
  • Like Iblís, who said, ‘Thou hast led me astray: Thou hast broken the cup and art beating me.’”
  • Nay, (the Divine) destiny is a fact and the slave's (man's) exertion (of power) is a fact: beware, do not be blind of one eye, like the tatterdemalion Iblís.
  • We are left vacillating between two (alternative) actions: how should this vacillation be without (unaccompanied by) free-will?
  • How should he whose hands and feet are chained say, “Shall I do this or shall I do that?”
  • Can there ever be in my head such a dilemma as this, (namely), “Shall I walk on the sea or shall I fly aloft?” 410
  • (No); there is (only) this (kind of) vacillation, (namely), “Shall I go toMosul (for trade) or shall I go to Babylon for (the study of) magic?”
  • Vacillation, then, must have (in connexion with it) a power to act; otherwise, it would be a (mere) mockery.
  • Do not put the blame on Destiny, O youth: how can you lay upon others (responsibility for) your own sin?
  • Does Zayd commit murder, and the retaliation for which he is liable fall upon ‘Amr? Does ‘Amr drink wine, and the penalty for wine(-drinking) fall upon Ahmad?
  • Circle round yourself and perceive your sin: perceive that the movement proceeds from the sun and do not regard it as proceeding from the shadow; 415
  • For the Lord's retribution will not err: that sagacious Lord knows the guilty one.
  • When you have eaten (too much) honey, the fever (caused by it) does not come to (does not attack) another; your day's wages do not come at nightfall to another.
  • In what (work) have you exerted yourself without its returning to you (in some form) What have you sown without the produce of the seed coming (back to you)?
  • Your action that is born of your soul and body clings to your skirt, like your (own) child.
  • In the Unseen World the action is given a form (corresponding to its nature): is not a gallows erected (in retribution) for the act of robbery? 420
  • How should the gallows resemble robbery? But that is the form given (to robbery) by God who knoweth things unseen,
  • Since God inspired the prefect's heart to make such a form for justice' sake.
  • So long as you are wise and just, how should Destiny deal justice and give retribution not in accordance (with your actions)?
  • Since a judge does this in the case of a virtuous man, how (then) will the most Just of these judges give judgement?
  • When you sow barley nothing except barley will grow up: (if) you have borrowed, from whom (but yourself) will you require the security? 425
  • Do not lay (responsibility for) your sin upon any one else: give your mind and ear to this retribution.
  • Lay the sin upon yourself, for you yourself sowed (the seed): make peace with the recompense and justice of God.
  • The cause of (your) affliction is some evil deed: acknowledge that evil is done by you, not by Fate.
  • To look at Fate (alone) makes the eye asquint: it makes the dog be attached to the kennel and lazy.
  • Suspect yourself, O youth; do not suspect the recompense of (Divine) justice. 430
  • Repent like a man, turn your head into the (right) Way, for whoso doeth a mote's weight (of good or evil) shall see it.
  • Do not be duped by the wiles of the carnal soul, for the Divine Sun will not conceal a single mote.
  • These material motes, O profitable man, are visible in the presence of this material sun.
  • (So too) the motes consisting of ideas and thought are manifest in the presence of the Sun of Realities.
  • Story of the fowler who had wrapped himself in grass and drawn over his head a handful of roses and red anemones, like a cap, in order that the birds might think he was grass. The clever bird had some little notion that he was (really) a man, and said (to itself), “I have never seen grass of this shape”; but it did not wholly apprehend (the truth) and was deceived by his guile, because at the first view it had no decisive argument, (whereas) on its second view of the trick it had a decisive argument, namely, cupidity and greed, (which are) especially (potent) at the time of excessive want and poverty. The Prophet—God bless and save him!—has said that poverty is almost infidelity.
  • A bird went into a meadow: there was a trap (set) for the purpose of fowling. 435
  • Some grain had been placed on the ground, and the fowler was ensconced there in ambush.
  • He had wrapped himself in leaves and grass, that the wretched prey might slip off from the path (of safety).
  • A little bird approached him in ignorance (of his disguise): then it hopped round and ran up to the man,